1 of 2 Mayor Daniella Levine CavaPublic safety comes first and our budget proves it Mayor FernandezPublic safety comes first and our budget proves it Public safety is an essential responsibility of local government. Our residents expect to feel safe in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities, and they expect their government to make that a priority. My proposed budget does exactly that. Since I was elected, we have continued to increase our investment in law enforcement, and I am proud that Miami-Dade continues to be one of the safest metropolitan communities in the nation. When I took office in 2020, we invested $610.7 million in what is now the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. Today, we are proposing $978.1 million, building on years of increased investment in the men and women who work every day to protect us. We have done that while working to ease the burden on taxpayers. We cut our property tax rate in two consecutive years, bringing it to its lowest level in decades. This year’s proposed budget keeps that historically low rate in place because we know residents continue to feel the pressure of rising costs. It’s no secret that the financial choices facing our community are getting harder. The resources available to us are growing more slowly, the cost of delivering essential services continues to rise, and we are preparing for even greater fiscal uncertainty as Florida considers major changes to property taxes that would drastically reduce our ability to fund key services, including public safety. Departments across my administration have been asked to make difficult decisions in this year’s budget, reducing expenditures by approximately $79 million and eliminating 419 vacant General Fund positions. These reductions come after county departments identified approximately $42 million in additional savings during the current fiscal year. Against that backdrop, we made a deliberate choice to invest more in public safety. The proposed budget for the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office grows by more than $55.3 million to $978.1 million, an increase of approximately 6 percent, and provides for 200 additional positions – the highest levels in history. While county departments were asked to limit growth to 3 percent, requiring significant cuts as the cost of providing services continues to rise, we proposed double that growth for public safety, including the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miami- Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department. The contrast is clear. While much of county government is being asked to operate with less, we are continuing to invest more in the Sheriff’s Office because public safety is our top priority. There are legitimate concerns about recruiting and retaining deputies and ensuring competitive pay. The Sheriff’s Office has one of the lower entry-level base salaries among comparable agencies in Florida. But base salary does not tell the whole story. On average, deputies receive 21 percent in additional compensation through collectively bargained supplements and incentives, including signing bonuses and hazardous-duty pay, bringing total compensation in line with comparable agencies across the state. Staffing levels also deserve context. Recruiting qualified deputies and retaining experienced officers remain priorities, but state data show the Sheriff’s Office’s overall staffing ratio compares favorably with other large sheriff’s offices in Florida. The Sheriff’s recent community survey found that residents want a visible, responsive law enforcement presence and continued progress in reducing crime. We welcome those findings because we share those priorities. The question is how we meet those expectations while balancing the many needs of our community. More spending cannot, on its own, be a measure of our commitment to public safety. By law, we must present a balanced budget. That requires making choices across county government about where limited resources can and should be spent. That is not an argument against investing more in the Sheriff’s Office. We are investing more, even as we make difficult reductions elsewhere to meet that responsibility. I am confident that by working together with the Sheriff, we will arrive at a budget that protects our officers and community. A disagreement over how much more to spend should not be mistaken for a disagreement over whether public safety comes first. It does. Our budget proves it.     ABOUT US: For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. Miami’s Community Newspapers offers daily news, online resources, podcasts and other multimedia content to keep readers informed. 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